Stockers receive honorary degrees from Mount St. Mary's

May 21, 2013 | ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Marv, ’65, and Donna Stocker received honorary doctorates of humane letters at Mount St. Mary’s University’s 205th Commencement Exercises on May 12.

“Marv and Donna have lived the Prayer of St. Francis: ‘Blessed are they who give, for they shall receive’ and we honor them for their constant support of the Mount and our mission here on Mary’s Mountain,” said Mount St. Mary’s President Thomas H. Powell.

The Stockers are also longtime supporters of St. Bonaventure University, having donated more than a quarter-million dollars over the years to Marv’s alma mater.
At Mount St. Mary’s, the Stockers have been very active and were recently named honorary alumni by the Alumni Association.

Three Stocker daughters graduated from the Mount — Deb, ’95; Jen, ’98; and Anne, ’00 — while son-in-law Kevin Kalis was president of the class of 1999.

In 1992, the Stockers became members of the Mount Parents Council, and were named co-chairs of the Parents Advocates Fund in 1994; the fund raised more than $750,000 in five years.

In 1998, they received the Pride of the Mount Award for their fundraising efforts and continue to chair the Past-Parents category of the Mount Annual Fund.

Marv was appointed to the President’s Council in 2000, a position he holds today, and in the years leading up to the Mount’s 200th birthday in 2008, the Stockers served on the Mount’s Bicentennial Commission and were awarded a Bicentennial Medal in recognition of their efforts.

Marv has also served on the Mount’s Baltimore Alumni Chapter Golf Tournament Committee, and the Athletic Department’s Pro-Am Committee. The Stockers have traveled with Mount students and faculty on numerous service trips to orphanages in Peru and Costa Rica, and established scholarships in 2006 to assist Mount students in these academic and cultural programs.

A Buffalo native, Marv worked for General Electric in marketing and sales management positions in Buffalo, Rochester, and Cleveland and became Baltimore/Washington sales manager in 1979. He remained in senior sales management positions until his retirement in 2003.

Donna was born in Rochester and studied at the Rochester School of Nursing. She was a nurse at Genesee Hospital for eight years before moving to the cardiac operating room at the University of Rochester Hospital. She took leave from nursing while raising their children, but went back to work in 1996 at Bon Secours Nursing and Rehab in Ellicott City, Md.